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Claymore for some reason I had lost interest in, perhaps because someone said it was a bad adaptation

The only problem with Claymore is that the manga is on-going and the anime is finished. Most of the story is a faithful adaptation of the manga, but the final was invented especially for the series (and it's lame).

I'm amused to see so much discussion of Claymore in a thread looking for anime without women!

I don't read manga, so I never cared about the supposed "bad adaptation" complaints from manga readers. The ending resolves a few story threads and leaves the rest on the table. I'm guessing Madhouse hoped (expected?) that Claymore would continue on for additional seasons, but it never garnered enough viewers or DVD sales to justify that.

My experience here is that every manga adaptation generally brings out a chorus of complaints; my advice is to ignore them and make up your own mind based on what what you see on the screen. (You need only scan the current thread for Vampire Bund to see this process in action.)

Honestly, this is a really bizarre and hard to fulfill request, especially since you seem to have done a pretty good job at watching what is available already.

Most anime is about teenagers. You want shows with pretty much all adults, so that already greatly limits what's available.

It's pretty rare for any modern show/book/play/other-forms-of-media to be completely devoid of women, since A: there are no jobs that are only for males now and B: shows like to feature both sexes because it attracts more viewers. Most media that would feature only men are going to be old things, particularly featuring war, action, crime, or science fiction, and as anime is a fairly recent medium (especially the bulk of it from the 90's and 00's), that makes it harder as well.

You say that "Trying to avoid one-dimensional or misogynist characterizations of women in anime often leads simply to avoiding them altogether, unfortunately." I really don't buy that. If anything, show that have mostly men with little women interaction are generally going to have the women that are present portrayed as little more than eyecandy or brief romances for the men, since they aren't developing those characters. It's shows that have women as important characters that are more likely to have well-developed and realistic portrayals, and there are plenty of shows out there that do. However, most of these feature romance because romance is an incredibly common element no matter what genre a show is. Since you apparently don't just want to avoid romance with unrealistic women but any women at all, this further complicates things.

If you want only manly women, there may be some action shows out there that fit the requirements, but you seem to have watched most of them, and action shows are prone to fan service anyway. If you actually want well-developed women in general, then you're really limiting yourself by eliminating any romance because it is such a common element in fiction. If you want only men with zero women, you should realistically look in a medium other than anime like older novels or movies, because there really aren't that many in anime, and you seem to have watched them all.

My explanation was poor and I was lazy, since I didn't think it really mattered.

What I'd like is
- the main cast is over 18
- no romance
- no fanservice
I know that is nearly impossible to find. I figured, since these revolve around women and children (shows with an entirely female cast are largely fanservice) then I would ask for anime without women and children.

It doesn't matter if they are masculine or feminine, I do not want to see them showering or having difficulty keeping a shirt on. And romance, well, is inescapable. I still am not very interested in seeing it and find it frustrating when it intrudes unnecessarily on an otherwise enjoyable show.

I still have about 150 anime left that I am interested in, but after that, yes, I'll move on to something else. Was just trying to see if there was anything I missed. Looks like there wasn't much. I do intend to either add to this thread or make another in search of yet one more difficult to fulfill request.

Here are some suggestions, but I don't think any of them meet the requirements 100%, so I guess you can decide if they are too unacceptable. Also, some of these I may have seen a while ago, and since I'm not particularly watching for lack of romance or fanservice, I may have forgotten some parts with those elements.

Aoi Bungaku, Episodes 9-12 - I think is my best suggestion for those criteria. The show is multiple unrelated stories, so don't worry about skipping the other eight. Those ones have romance as a strong theme, so you wouldn't be interested.
Ghost Hunt - Most of the characters are adults or at least late high schoolers. There isn't really fanservice that I recall. There is a bit of hints of romance, but virtually nothing happens with it.
Kara no Kyoukai - Seven movies. Not really much fan service, but there is some romance involved. It's the kind of unspoken but still present romance, so it might be unobtrusive enough.
Trigun - I think it has a bit of fanservice from random characters near the more comedic beginning, but I don't remember it having a lot. Pretty light on any romantic element as well.
Witch Hunter Robin - Saw this along time ago. I don't remember a romance or fanservice being important, but who knows.

Yeah, I had watched Aoi Bungaku up until Kokoro, but I quickly lost interest during those episodes (surprised I even got that far, honestly). Similarly with Kara no Kyoukai, I watched up until 4 or so but became disinterested during the rape. Both of them I suppose I will finish eventually.
Trigun I watched a long time ago on TV.

Ghost Hunt and Witch Hunter Robin I had already intended to see and will move them up on my priority list, I guess.

How about Black Lagoon? They're all adults, and while the relationship between Rock and Revy has romantic and sexual tension, it largely remains tense. Revy certainly is designed for fanservice, but I got used to her costume pretty quickly and moved along to the story. There's a lot of variation in quality across the individual story arcs, but the best ones like the finale of season two, "Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise," are pretty good.

Oh! Edo Rocket also crossed my mind. There's an obvious main couple, but they're not particularly romantic at any point. It's full of adults as well.

Finally I'll throw out Bartender. There's a woman named Miwa who clearly has an enormous crush on the bartender, Ryuu, but most of the main characters are men, often older men. A couple of stories touch on subjects like lost love, but the romances usually happened in the past. (Just a warning that the first episode is actually one of the weakest. Miwa's story is told in episode two, and it's one of the best. She then returns from time to time as a narrator and "Greek chorus.")

Yeah, I had watched Aoi Bungaku up until Kokoro, but I quickly lost interest during those episodes (surprised I even got that far, honestly). Similarly with Kara no Kyoukai, I watched up until 4 or so but became disinterested during the rape. Both of them I suppose I will finish eventually.

You should at least watchi till episoe 5, which is considered by far to be the best of the series.

That's a really interesting request... ... How come most of the manga / anime suggested here seem really dark? Kaiji and Akagi both look like very 18+ gangster movies.

I would have thought something more along the lines of:

"Hikaru no go" about 70eps, mostly about boys who play go... ... no romance, no fan service, and every go match in the series is an actually logically sensible Go game, so there is a lot of depth to this. Although i'm not so sure about the no children requirement... ...

or "Captain tsubasa" which I think needs no introduction or explanation. Let me just say this: it's not often when you get a bunch of Chinese guys cheering on the Japanese national team... ... But seeing Japan's 1-4 defeat against Brazil in 2006, and comparing it to China's 0-4 defeat against Brazil 4 years earlier... ... You can just see the influence of anime in the football spirit... ... In fact, Hidetoshi Nakata once said "Captain Tsubasa inspired me to play football". Of course, now I'm getting off topic.

or the classic manga "総務部総務課山口六平太"... ... and I hear there is now an anime out for this. Although I read the Chinese version, and has no idea what the english version is called, or if it exists... ... It's all about a very ordinary and insignificant man and his life in the office. There are women in this, but all the main characters are men, and I think this is targeted at a mature audience. There is no violence or sex, and it has a lot of realism.

BTW, I see you are a LoGH fan too. I thought LoGH has quite a few female characters, like Frederica and Jessica, and Mariedolf... ... and there is quite a bit about domestic relationships like, the Cazellnu and Greenhill families, the Lohengramm / Kircheis / Annerose triangle, and the contrasting relationships of Mittermeyer and Reuental... ... Although there's much more screen time on battles and politics, but when you think about it, there is a significant amount of depth on the relationship side of things.

Hikaru no Go I had intended to watch, though I keep putting it off because of its length. I'd actually never heard of Captain Tsubasa though, probably because I don't really look into much sports anime.
Is this the 総務部総務課山口六平太 you mean? On the Ministry of Justice's youtube channel, even.

I think in LoGH, with anything that was going to be even the most minor of elements, a lot of depth goes into it. Even with the romance, yes. Though it was my least favorite part of the series.